ALL ABOUT LIFE BEYOND KINDERGARTEN! Kindergarten is the basic building block for all future learning. It is true that everything you need to know in life was really learned in Kindergarten. The trick is to remember what you learned when you were five or six. What you liked then will most likely be something you will like now. So be true to yourself and who you really are and who you will really be. Look back and you just may find your true self! Yes…this blog is about a variety of topics…because we are all a smorgasbord of thoughts and ideas.

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A Blue Mustang and Me.

Ford Mustang!

I couldn’t have a car on campus when I was a freshman in college. School rules said…NO, NO, NO. It was just as well…I had yet to have my own car anyway! I had never even thought about getting my own car. Having my very own wheels seemed like a very remote prospect.

Good luck came my way when I met a group of girls in my dorm from Waco…one of them had a Volkswagon convertible! Saved by the bell! Freedom! Of course, it was a bit uncomfortable when six or seven girls piled inside. But…who cares?

As the second semester was almost complete, a special something happened! My uncle worked for the Ford dealership in my hometown. Uncle Merton told my Dad about a FORD MUSTANG that had just arrived on the used car lot! A Mustang from one of the first years that they were made! I certainly did not mind that it was used! No problem there!

The car was blue. The car was fast. The car was…well…totally cool. But…most important…the car was a good price!

The blue Ford Mustang became mine!

When I took my FordMustang to college for the Fall semester, I was so proud that I drove around campus for at least an hour every day. It is a wonder that I had time for class. I kept that car spotless and admonished anyone who left a scrap of paper in the car. Actually, I must have been a truly problematic friend!

I bought a blue trash container to match my car. No litter in my car!

One day, I picked up a guy who I knew from the school newspaper staff who was walking back to the dorm. I felt sorry for the boy since he didn’t have any wheels. I must have been a show-off. Anyway, he got in my car and proceeded to try to light a cigarette. He might have succeeded except for the fact that I quickly grabbed the cigarette and threw it out the window.

So much for getting a date with that guy. He jumped out at the next corner. I made a “no smoking” in my car sign. I wrote it sort of politely.

And then it happened. My roommate wanted to go downtown to buy a sweater for a date that night. Of course, I agreed. Going downtown was another excuse for driving down Main Street while waving to people like I was in the Homecoming parade. It was slightly raining and a bit slippery. A car stopped in front of me to turn left…no brake lights…and we were both busy waving. So I plowed into the back of the other car. No one was hurt. I got the ticket…a big ticket. My Mustangwas (or so they said) fixable.

My parents were not at all happy. My roommate’s parents were not happy. We never waved again…well, not very much. Anyway, she stole my new boyfriend the very next week. She lost the chance to ever, ever ride in my car again!

One of my college dorms! I parked my car in the very front!

Eventually, I calmed down about my car. I was just so excited about having it! And then…it started acting up. The wreck was too much for it. Or maybe my driving was too much for it. Sometimes, it would not start at all. Sometimes, the key would get stuck. Sometimes, the gears would not work correctly. The air conditioner stopped behaving. Everything was wrong, but I kept it until I graduated. I even drove it (barely) for a year or so after graduation.

By that time, I was working at a newspaper and decided to buy a new car! No! Not a Mustang! My new favorite car…

A BRAND NEW CHEVROLET CAMARO!

I paid sticker price…no haggling at all. Where was my mind? Today, I would argue for three weeks about the price!

I didn’t even know that I liked cars when my uncle found that Mustang! A used car lot gem! It was a cool car and evidently a good buy or…trust me…my dad would never have bought it! My dad was an accountant and was careful with money!!! And…I married an accountant! I paid for my Camaro since I was out of college and had a job! That was an adjustment!! I met my husband two months or so after I bought the Camaro. We married two years or so later. He told friends that he gained a wife AND a car payment!!!

We kept the Camaro for two years after we were married. By that time, our son-Justin-was on the way. We realized that a car seat would not fit into the back seat at all! So I sold it…I still look for it on the road!!

I wish that I had kept that car too…and the Mustang. We never thought that the Camaro would be something collectors would want!! The Mustang was used when I got it plus I had the accident…so it might not have appreciated as much!

Bet you wish you had the Mustang back about now! I had a Ford Mustang also as my first car only it was a hatchback so my sons tell me it was just a mustang wannabe. I just tell them that my four banger hatchback made it up Pikes Peak….twice!

Wow! Another something in common! I always thought the hatchbacks were more valuable! Can you imagine what kind of $$ we would make if we still had those cars?!! My Mustang might not have made it up Pikes Peak…let me rephrase that…no way would it have even made it to Colorado! It sure was cute though! But…my Camaro was BEAUTIFUL to me. I met Mike two months after I bought it…he could not believe that I had actually bought a turquoise car! Maybe that should have given him a clue to his future!!!!!! I always choose the most weird colors!!!!

My hatchback was a metallic forest green. I thought it was beautiful. Lar had a Camaro when he was young….but then he had a lot of cool cars through the years. His favorite was always his Roadrunner. It burned up after being rear ended cruising on a Sunday night. Several years ago he found another one just like it and bought it.

I absolutely love forest green cars! I wanted one that color when I bought my SUV last year…but, they did not make it in the right shade!! I didn’t have a choice on my Mustang since it was used…the blue really, really faded! My Camaro was a wonderful color! We kept it for two years after we were married and then when Justin was on the way…we realized that a car seat would not fit correctly in the back seat! I was crushed to sell that car! We bought a 4 door Geo Prism and it was small, but the car seat fit. It was GREEN! When Kathleen came along…we grew up and bought a Toyota Mini Van! I don’t know why we thought we needed something big for a car seat…I could not park it and she figured out how to unlatch three car seats in a row. Maybe our grandson will be so clever!!! Payback!!!

I HAVE to see a college photo of you now just to complete my visual! I had a ’66 Dodge Coronet but it won me lunch money every day on the way to high school when I’d race this guy from school in a Z-28 ha! Good lord, I would drive that wreck around with a case of oil, 4 jugs of water (as it overheated often) and 2 bottles of Barrs Radiator Stop leak! But you could get into a wreck and be the ONLY one with merely a scratch on it! ha!